Release Day Review: Fated: Blood and Redemption by Bey Deckard

At a Glance: If it’s a measure of how well I loved this series to say it’s one I’ll read again once its end has had a chance to settle, then consider Fated, and the entire series, well loved.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: With the captain’s mind in shambles, Jon and Tom set out to find the passage home through the black mountain range, hoping to find a cure for Baltsaros’s madness. However, when the men are forced to part ways, darkness takes root in the schism created; fate, lust, and vengeance become obsessions threatening to tear apart the fragile bonds holding the three together.

Following on the heels of Sacrificed, Fated takes the pirates on a quest to find those responsible for the captain’s bloody beginnings. But can they survive what awaits them where past and present meet?

Review: Sometimes starting a review is not only hard but pretty damned intimidating, especially when you harbor such a fondness for a series you’re afraid you can’t do it the justice it deserves…other than telling people just to read the books. I guess a reviewer’s job is the “why” of it, though, so here it goes:

The characters—Captain Baltsaros, Tom, and Jon: One a charming, ruthless and deadly pirate; one a former slave born into nobility, cheeky and irresistible; one an innocent young man kidnapped to be used as a tool of the Captain’s bidding, strong and at the same time, vulnerable. What makes these characters special is their individual charisma. Apart, they are a trichotomy—three individual pieces of a puzzle that perhaps shouldn’t fit together; together, however, they are a troika, an interworking of want and need that works as the completion of a relationship which must have Jon at its center for balance. He is the hinge for Baltsaros, for Tom, and at the intersection he plays the important role of not only loving both men but helping them learn how to love each other, to overcome their own insecurity and jealousy.

The journey these men take isn’t always measured in nautical miles but in milestones which draw them closer together and sometimes threaten to tear them apart. Fated: Blood and Redemption is the completion of the trilogy and marks the turning point where the Captain must freely offer of himself in order to bring deliverance to Jon, Tom, and, ultimately, to himself. Fated has an almost dreamlike quality to it, alternating between the past and the present, and steering readers through the psychological stigmata which threatens Baltsaros’s sanity, not to mention affecting both Jon and Tom in myriad ways. Is Fate at play in this story, are these men simply ghosts in the machine? Is every action, reaction, and decision—regardless of how well planned or impulsive—destined to bring these men through hell and spit them out on the other side as if they had no real choice at all? It would seem so. And through it all, they fuck and fight with intensity, as they have from the beginning, part of what makes these books so fantastic, that visceral tension that runs between the three of them.

The Adventure—This series is cleverly crafted Alt U/Fantasy, a bit of swashbuckling, a bit of mysticism, and so captivating because it’s not only original but draws one in emotionally as well. Each time Baal’s Heart sets sail, these men are affected by that journey, and, on the flip-side, these men affect each journey they undertake. It’s impossible not to become invested in the relationship these men have built, to grin madly at Tom and to sympathize with all three of them, and while the books aren’t necessarily romances, there is a romanticism to them: the idea of each loving two men for different but no less powerful reasons, living by their own rules and answering to no one but themselves and those they’ve chosen to keep close.

Fated brings the trilogy full-circle, the end is the beginning, and one can only assume the cycle will continue for these passionate men until the end of their days together. If it’s a measure of how well I loved this series to say it’s one I’ll read again once its end has had a chance to settle, then consider Fated, and the entire series, well loved.

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